The new vampire thriller 30 Days of Night (based on a graphic novel of the same name) sort of does for the blood sucker what 28 Days Later did for the zombie. This tense (and grim) horror flick takes place in Barrow, Alaska during a thirty day stretch of complete and utter darkness. When a pack of merciless vampires ascend on the town, it spells certain doom for the locals who reside there.

A small group of survivors attempt to make it through alive, but will they be able to fend off the evil of the night for an entire month? 30 Days of Night was directed by the gifted David Slade who, just two years ago, took tension to new heights with his stunning debut Hard Candy. Here, Slade has the benefit of a larger budget and he makes the most of it. The cold, dire, isolated surroundings bring to mind the locales in the brilliant re-imagining of The Thing, and John Carpenter is but one of several genre masters Slade appears to be tipping his hat to. The vampires that terrorize in this film are not the suave, erotic beings of Interview With a Vampire and Dracula. The blood suckers in 30 Days of Night are brutal, vicious killing machines who often like to taunt their victims before going in for the kill.

Leading the pack is Marlow (a darkly playful Danny Huston, an ancient vampire who looks German but speaks with a native American accent. Bizarre. There's nothing bizarre about this blood sucker's hunting methods however. When he locks in on his prey, he means business. On the human side of the proceedings, we have Josh Hartnett and Melissa George as an estranged married couple who must come together in the face of absolute horror. The problem is, there is virtually no chemistry between the two and when we come to the rather dark end of this bleak tale (an end which appears to be plucked from Guillermo del Toro's Blade 2), a pivotal scene that's supposed to deliver an emotion punch, drops to the ground without an ounce of plasma flowing through it.

Thankfully though, most of 30 Days of Night works it's black magic like a charm. It's a gritty, down and dirty thrill ride, and it's most fun when Slade loosens up and piles on the gore. One sequence in particular (it features a tractor) is a splatterific crowd pleaser. 30 Days of Night is a tad too long (some scenes in which the townsfolk are seeking out new hiding places, become a wee bit repetitious) and a little more character depth would have been nice. Having said that, 30 Days of Night delivers the goods more often than not. It's creepy and atmospheric and clearly fashioned by a fan of the genre.